1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to RFID tags and, more specifically but not exclusively, to using RFID tags to identify and track samples, such as biological samples stored in freezers.
2. Description of the Related Art
This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the disclosure. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is prior art or what is not prior art.
A biobank (also known as a biorepository) can contain many sample boxes of RFID-tagged vials. Each sample box can hold on the order of 100 vials. To locate a particular sample, it is desirable to map the box contents. Mapping of the box contents serves several purposes. First, a biobank can hold millions of samples, and it is important to know where a particular sample is. Second, when retrieving a sample, it is useful to know where that particular sample is so that it can be retrieved quickly. Finally, when samples are added to a biobank, their locations need to be registered in the biobank database. As such, a method for adding a sample to the bio bank would be useful. A tool that would read all of the sample information without manual intervention would be of greater value and greatly increase the value of the biobank by reducing human errors in the sample acceptance process.
Typically, vials are removed from or added to a sample box one by one, and information for each vial is recorded, by reading and entering the human readable information on the vial and/or by scanning using a 1D or 2D barcode reader. Box mappers exist that can scan vials with 2D barcodes on the bottoms of the vials. However, this type of system cannot read through frost and ice. Removal of the frost or ice can contribute to sample thawing due to the time spent in the cleaning and also due to the cleaning method itself, which is usually done using alcohol.